To Lie with Lions - Dorothy Dunnett [125]
‘You may have the opportunity,’ said the Patriarch calmly. ‘If I am not mistaken, the lady is about to arrive.’
Jan Adorne heard it, breathing hard, and felt himself turning white. In the heat of the moment, he had meant all he said. He had not expected the Gräfin herself to appear. He drew himself up, and was surprised when Julius, too, took a quick step forward and fell silent. The boy Nerio, after looking from the one to the other, had turned his smile on the great double doors of the hall which stood open. Beyond them, several people were waiting. One, the Cardinal’s major domo, stood with head bowed. One, a very young girl plainly gowned, appeared to stand in attendance. Two men stood beside her, presumably from the Cardinal’s household. To the right of the doorpost a second lady was waiting, of whom nothing could be seen but elegant rings, and the fall of exquisite silk from one sleeve.
The major domo, a Cypriot, straightened. The girl curtseyed. The major domo entered the room and his guest took her place at his back, the two men falling in behind with the girl. The Countess, it was apparent, was diminutive, but wholly composed. Although her person might be obscured by the bulk of the Cypriot, her robe swept the tiles, it could be seen, without trembling; the set of her arms, it was plain, was relaxed.
The procession halted. Julius took another pace forward. The major domo raised his wand and with deliberation, stepped to one side. There was a collective sound; not quite a gasp.
‘So there is your whore!’ cried Jan Adorne; and burst into laughter.
The servants behind must have been waiting: as he uttered the words, they grasped his arms and pulled him backwards, and through a discreet door. He made no resistance. He had shamed Julius, as Julius and Nerio had shamed him. And yet, he still could not believe what he had seen.
Indeed, the Gräfin Anna von Hanseyck had turned out to be small; short would be the better description. Indeed, she was splendidly dressed in a gown of heavy silk in deep blue, whose volume and cost could only be guessed at. Its oversleeves, embroidered and gemmed, were of velvet, and jewels were bound into her hair and appeared to encircle her throat. Appeared, since her neck was so fat that its corbels concealed all that might lie in their creases. The same amplitude invested her clothes: the rounded bastion of the lower torso and the twin parapets of the bodice, with between them a nook-shaft fit for a putlog and hoarding. The oversleeves, falling back at the elbow, exposed silk-covered arms stout as balusters and wrists whose bracelets seemed pressed into place with a chinsing-iron. The face was round, the expression benign, the thick-painted eyes little short of magnificent. But nothing softened the terrible truth. The creature was vast. The sweetheart of Julius was the fattest person Jan had ever encountered.
He let himself be taken off and sent home, still hiccoughing weakly. So he did not hear the major domo make his announcement, in Latin followed by Greek. My lords, ladies and gentlemen, pray honour the Despoina Zoe Palaeologina, niece of Constantine, lately Imperator Constantinopolitanus; honour the prince Andrew Palaeologus, Despot of the Morea; and honour the prince Manuel Palaeologus, his brother.
‘Jan thought she was your lover. Do you have a lover?’ said Nerio to Julius.
‘None of your business,’ said Julius, choking. There were tears in his eyes. The lady had begun, in a stately way, to make a circuit of the far end of the room. He said, ‘She’s just been painted for Muscovy. Do you think